style in progress 1/2023 – Anita Tillman & Stephan Huber

20 YEARS PREMIUM EMPATHY AS A SUPERPOWER

Depending on the perspective, 20 years represent either the blink of an eye or an era. When Anita Tillmann looks back on two decades of Premium, both seem to be true. However, the successful entrepreneur and mother of twin girls prefers to look into the future. As always, it was a great pleasure to do so together. A conversation about the role of trade shows in a completely new cycle, the power of consumers, and empathy as a superpower.

Interview: Stephan Huber. Illustration: Tibo Exenberger@Caroline Seidler

20 years of Premium – what a journey! Surely, that must evoke strong feelings. Which ones?

Anita Tillmann, Managing Director of Premium Exhibitions: First of all, something almost akin to astonishment. How… 20 years??? It certainly does not feel like two decades. Not even when I look into the mirror. (laughs) Yet this time was so densely packed and breath-taking. So much has happened that I can hardly believe that it all fits into 20 years. I was privileged to experience, create, and learn so much – all while meeting so many incredible people. Maybe this anniversary is the right time to express gratitude for that.

Yes, I also consider the countless people who have shaped and enriched me and my path a great privilege. I remain convinced that our industry is full of exciting, funny, smart, and empathetic characters. Would you actually do it all again in exactly the same way? That seems to be a popular question for anniversaries.

Anita Tillmann: Even with today’s knowledge and experience, I would still largely follow the same path again. Do not get me wrong, of course I have also made mistakes. Yet this is part of my development, both as a person and as an entrepreneur. I would always choose the path of being an entrepreneur again. Entrepreneurship and the courage to make risky decisions are simply in my blood. Much of it was a wild ride. Back then, when we took on a great deal of debt to buy the location at Berlin’s Gleisdreieck, my dad said: “If it goes wrong, you pack up your family and move back in with us.”

So, that was an all-in play?

Anita Tillmann: Completely all-in! Ultimately, however, it was a step that pointed the way forward for our development as a company! It made us much more self-determined. The fact that we have never experienced stagnation in these 20 years is probably also the reason why it is still so much fun. For example, I would always launch and explore new formats. We first addressed the topic of sustainability in 2006 with the Green Area. FashionTech was – and is – a great content format. With The Ground, we have launched a format in which the boundaries between D2C and B2B blur and completely new storytelling ideas can be trialled. Then there is Seek, which developed into such a gem. It also serves as a prototype for our corporate culture, as it emerged from within the team. Marie-Luise Patzelt and Maren Wiebus anticipated this topic at a very early stage and simply wanted to give it a go. They were so convinced by the concept. Jörg and I trusted them and simply let them do their thing. It cannot be emphasised often enough how crucial a great team is for the success of a company. And we have a REALLY great team!

Yes, team is key! That also applies to style in progress. Naturally, 20 years have produced a whole host of absolute highlights. Which ones come to mind spontaneously?

Anita Tillmann: Singling out highlights is a real challenge. The collaboration with Parley for the Oceans and Pharell Williams in 2013 is definitely one of them. That was such a global project. The first German Fashion Week, back then with Klaus Wowereit at the Brandenburg Gate, was also very special. Virgil Abloh joined us as a designer and DJ when he was still only recognised by insiders. Or David Fischer, who presented Highsnobiety at our first FashionTech. José Neves was an exhibitor at Premium before he became a global force with Farfetch. We have always served as a very lively and diverse platform for talent and creativity in the making.

I cannot resist contributing at least one very special anecdote from 25 years of style in progress at this point. It was actually still in the last millennium that I invented the cover story format “The Longview”, a visionary interview with an outstanding personality, mainly because I wanted to meet Massimo Osti and Francois Girbaud. I visited Osti in Bologna and enjoyed the great honour of being personally guided through his deservedly legendary archive. With Girbaud, recording device in hand, I strolled through Paris at night, where he met all manner of buddies during the interview and occasionally disappeared. I have you to thank for a real highlight from my younger days. The perfectly correct summary of an absolutely extraordinary invitation: “I was in the hills of Florence with the Prince of Burma on an organic cannabis farm!” However, I mostly hoped to look into the future with you. As we know, it is wide open.

Anita Tillmann: Definitely, for those who actually relish this future and who are ready to face the challenges that a comprehensive change of era entails. That is exactly what we are living through right now. We are at the beginning of a new cycle that will redefine, at breath-taking speed to boot, much of what we have grown accustomed to over the years and decades. Constant change has always been a feature of the fashion industry, but the current dimension is something else altogether.

Can you explain this new cycle?

Anita Tillmann: Albert Eickhoff passed away in November last year. He was undoubtedly the outstanding personality of a cycle that was coming to an end when we launched the first Premium in a derelict underground station, very much representative of Berlin, in 2002. For many years, the power and authority in fashion rested with the retail trade. Eickhoff personified this like no other. His judgement determined careers, set trends, and influenced styles. Then we witnessed the shift of this power to brands. Driven by globalisation and digitalisation, this opened up completely new communicative and economic opportunities. Then social media flipped the switch once again. Now we are in the midst of a transformation that is ushering in a whole new cycle. The age of the consumer. These consumers actually no longer need brands, at least not in the sense of blind devotion. Brands, on the other hand, need the consumers. They need their input and influence within their communities. In theory, customer centricity is nothing new. Yet today, it is crucial to really embrace it in practice.

The redefinition of the role of the consumer, from passive buyer to the centrepiece of a completely changed supply chain, even in terms of content, is indeed the decisive factor for the ongoing transformation. Data and knowledge flows in all directions nowadays.

Anita Tillmann: Everyone influences everyone. Everything influences everything. Whereas the market used to be linear, it is now a circle. This forces all market participants to rethink. It is always a great challenge for us humans to leave familiar paths and explore new, perhaps still unexplored ones. Yet that is precisely what allows us to move forward. In this respect, fashion is once more a mirror of society.

Iwould like to work through this transformation with you based on a very concrete example that affects both of us – or our companies – very directly. Do we agree that we are witnessing the end of the seasons as we know them? Which also spells the end of rhythms as we know them? Simply because the consumer, in his new role and importance, will enforce the principle of “see now, buy now, wear now”?

Anita Tillmann: We are in complete agreement. It is simply necessary to redefine the supply chain, not least for reasons of sustainability. We cannot go on like this, and I am not saying this from a moral perspective. Preaching is not my thing. However, it will become an economic necessity to handle resources and, above all, people differently. Business models based on the exploitation of our resources will become increasingly costly, and thus uneconomical. That is a very good development, by the way. It is all there. The technologies are available, the market is in place, and society is ready for this change. We should regain confidence in our creativity, in our ability to evolve, and in our capability to adapt intelligently to changing conditions. Am I saying that this is an easy thing to do? Of course not. This is without question a truly era-defining challenge. Yet if we perceive this as a chance, as an opportunity, and engage with a positive will to shape it, then we have so much to gain.

Is optimism the order of the day?

Anita Tillmann: As we all know, nothing ever improved by complaining…

If the seasonal rhythm, which still largely determines the pace of the fashion industry, is a passing model, what implications does that have for Premium, or for trade fairs as we know them in general? And for style in progress for that matter…

Anita Tillmann: We set out in 2002 with the vision of redefining fashion shows. If I may say so myself, we have succeeded in many respects. Now we are facing this challenge all over again. Not just since today, by the way. This is a process that we have long since begun, not least with the new formats I mentioned earlier, and which occupies us on a daily basis. The concept of a marketplace that brings people together to exchange ideas, trade, find or present new things, learn, or simply have fun will always be relevant. The question is how this marketplace can continue to function in the future, in the face of completely altered market conditions. We have to think ahead, provide impulses, and even challenge our partners. Conversely, we need to be open to feedback and ideas. That is what we are: a marketplace of ideas for ALL market participants. There is no doubt in my mind that we will still need this marketplace in the future, perhaps even more acutely than ever.

The concept that salespeople simply wait on the sales floor for buyers or customers to appear is outdated. This not only applies to trade shows, but it also no longer works in the retail trade either.

Anita Tillmann: We need to find answers to this together. Many of our partners are actively addressing this issue and looking for new angles to present the brand. Drykorn and Baldessarini, for example, rely on activation. Conceived holistically, this results in a completely new added value that ideally combines B2B and D2C: from genuine content for social media to implementation at the point of sale with retail partners. This is what I consider contemporary brand management.

It is probably not as simple as it sounds. What is the secret ingredient?

Anita Tillmann: Empathy! I now contend, and you know of my great assertiveness, that empathy is an essential quality or skill for the future of our industry. Empathy is the key to truly understanding communities.

Why do I get the impression that we are talking about The Ground the whole time?

Anita Tillmann: Indeed, The Ground is the format in which much of what we are talking about comes together. Many people still erroneously describe it as an end consumer fair. It never was, and that was never the plan. Since we have already discussed new rhythms, The Ground will take place once a year in the summer. It reflects the transformation of the linear market I described earlier into an interactive circle in which all participants influence each other. We still have plenty to learn and develop on that front, by the way. However, The Ground is the spark for the next 20 years.

Do you feel under pressure, as some people seem to think?

Anita Tillmann: Everyone is under some kind of pressure. Pressure is something that does not agree with me at all. Pressure does not lead us forward either. I prefer to focus on curiosity and empathy. Incidentally, we are all facing the same challenges. This not only concerns the trade fairs, but the entire industry and beyond.

Finally, a glance at the immediate future. What can we expect in Berlin in January?

Anita Tillmann: Almost 500 great brands, and even more great people. Naturally, we intend to celebrate in a style befitting the occasion. After all, partying is one of our greatest talents!